Field of the Invention
This invention relates to coin mechanisms.
The term "coin" when used herein includes genuine coins, tokens, counterfeit coins and any other objects which may be inserted into a coin mechanism in an attempt to obtain any kind of goods or services.
The invention particularly relates to coin mechanisms which test coins as to their acceptability and, if acceptable, indicate their denomination, which have an accept/reject gate which is normally in a reject position but is electrically powered to an accept position when the testing means finds a coin acceptable, and have an electrically-actuated coin separator adapted to receive the acceptable coins from the accept/reject gate and direct them selectively towards different destinations in dependence upon their denominations. When a coin does not meet the criteria for acceptability, power is not applied to the accept/reject gate which thus remains in its reject position and this directs the coin onto a path which delivers it back for retrieval by the customer.
The destinations for accepted coins typically include a plurality of coin stores for specific coin denominations, these usually being in the form of coin tubes, which may have different diameters depending upon the particular coin denomination each is intended to contain, and which are adapted to hold the coins to them in a vertical stack face-to-face. A coin dispensing arrangement is provided for dispensing appropriate combinations of coins from the bottoms of the stacks for the purpose of giving change or providing prizes. Additionally, there is usually a cashbox to which are directed coins which it is not intended to dispense either as change or as prizes, and also coins which might normally be directed to specific coin stores but which are accepted when the particular coin store in question is already full.
Coin mechanisms of this general type are well known and widely sold.
A problem that can occur is coin jams resulting from an acceptable coin of a particular denomination inadvertently being directed to a destination which is not intended for coins of that denomination. For example, this may happen if a coin of a particular diameter is actually delivered to a coin tube intended for coins of a smaller diameter, when the jam may occur within or at the top of the tube itself, or it may occur if a coin of a given thickness is delivered into a tube intended for coins of a greater thickness, in which case the jam may occur when the dispenser is operated in an attempt to dispense the coin which is thinner than those it is designed to dispense.
Some coin separators are of a passive type, that is to say they contain mechanical, unpowered, features which can cause arriving coins to be directed onto different paths by mechanical interaction with dimensional features of the coins such as their diameters and thicknesses. Other types of separators, often referred to as active separators, include movable elements which can be electrically actuated to adopt two or more different positions, the actuation being carried out in response to a signal or signals indicative of the denomination of the coin as determined by the testing means, and the position of the movable element, or the combined positions of several such movable elements, cause the arriving coin to be directed onto a path appropriate for a coin of that particular denomination at that time. It is also possible for coin separators to be partly passive but also partly active and for the purpose of the present specification the term "electrically-actuated coin separator" includes any coin separator which relies, if only even in part, upon electrical actuation for its correct operation.
It has been found that coin jams downstream of the coin separator occur more often when electrically-actuated separators are used than when passive separators are used. The reasons are not always completely clear nor easy to determine.